IndiGo Airlines 'On time'

Indigo Airlines

Category- Domestic Airline (Low cost carrier)
Company- IndiGo Airlines

Campaign- "On Time"

I got to know about Indigo Airlines’ new campaign through one of my friends. And when I saw the commercial it prompted me to write something on it. Really it is a path-breaking campaign in an airline industry. The journey of TVC, right from the on time chef to becoming world’s powerful economy on time, amazed me.

Indian airline industry is experiencing stiff competition with strong players. And especially when you are in the category of LCC (low cost carrier), which is experiencing more heat, you need to come up with these kinds of innovative ideas. IndiGo has tough competition from Spicejet Airlines & GoAir Airlines. Before going to their individual positioning we will look into some consumer insights.

When it comes to domestic low cost airlines the main competitors are high cost domestic airlines & railways. Now in case of high cost domestic airlines, their strong point is luxury & convenience they have on their offer. So the low cost airlines have very low scope to attract the passengers who prefer luxury over cost. Now the basic question is why railway passenger considers the option of low cost domestic airlines. According to me there are three factors convenience, status & the most important time. Now we will see how the domestic low cost airlines answer to these factors.

During Jan, 2010 Spicejet came up with new campaign 'Get more when you fly SpiceJet'. The campaign positioned SpiceJet as an airline that cares for its customers and offers a flying experience where low fare is defined as high value. While GoAir positions itself as “The smart people’s airline”. Both the competitors position themselves on the basis of value they are offering in low cost. And here is Indigo Airlines with its new campaign focusing on the time factor which is more crucial to attract the target customer who has the option of railways. It has found very fundamental gap in the market & i.e. time.

On-time performance is core to the aviation business, and the new TVC reinforces IndiGo's commitment to providing fliers with an on-time, hassle-free experience at low fares. Featuring IndiGo cabin crew, IndiGo Ground Force and pilots, the TVC tells viewers the story of what happens behind the scene at IndiGo, enabling it to offer it’s unmatched and consistent On Time Performance and hassle free travel experience to all its fliers. From an on-time crew to spotless aircraft, and hospitable service to serving delicious food, the team-in-command puts its best foot forward to ensure customer comfort and punctuality. The TVC can be seen across business, news, movie, general entertainment, sports, travel, lifestyle and regional channels. Although the main push is on TV, the campaign is also being supported with collateral, online and some direct messages.

First of all, I would like to appreciate the idea of “On time” especially when you the part of aviation industry. Another plus point is you can extend this idea to further TVC’s where you can show the various universal concepts illustrating the value of time. Nice demonstration of the connection between the importance of time & the powerful economy. The TVC successfully carries the brand proposition of IndiGo Airline.

According to me, to have greater effect in terms of carrying the message to the target group they need to extend this campaign to outdoor, digital and print media. Further to engage the target group they need to come up with on-ground promotions. And On time is very good concept to execute during on-ground events. You can successfully engage the target group with this kind of concept if you have great idea of execution.

Tanishq Jewellery 'Wedding Jewellery'

Tanishq Jewellery

Category- Wedding Jewellery
Company- Tanishq Jewellery (Tata Group)

Campaign- "Wedding Jewellery"

By this campaign Tata Group’s Tanishq jewellery brand announces its entry into regional wedding jewellery segment.

Before going to the campaign we will see the status of Indian jewellery market. Rs. 1, 00,000 crore worth Indian jewellery market is divided into two segments; gold & diamond jewellery, with gold jewellery representing about 70-75% share. Further gold jewellery market is divided into regular & occasional (mostly comprise wedding jewellery) jewellery segments. Wedding jewellery market is huge representing about 50% of total Indian jewellery market. And this market is dominated by family or local jewellers.

Till now Tanishq was catering to the wedding jewellery market through its standard wedding collection. And this may be the reason behind its failure to compete with local jewellers, who were offering community & region specific wedding jewellery. To fill this gap recently Tanishq entered into the lucrative regional ornaments segment to cater to the diverse requirements of brides from different communities around India. Tanishq will come out with specific traditional collections to cater to brides from the Punjabi, Bihari, Gujarati, Marwari, Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, Kannada and Marathi communities.

By this strategy Tanishq is planning to expand its market to Tier I & Tier II cities. Each region has specific needs for certain jewellery pieces that are typical to their community. Also sometimes people like to wear jewellery specific to other regions so here is Tanishq one stop shop for every kind of people.

Obviously the TG is ladies who are going through the process of marriage and positioning is ‘branded community specific wedding jewellery’. Further we will see how these points are communicated through the new campaign.

The 360-degree campaign involves print, TVC, digital and BTL initiatives. First we will analyse the TVC part.

The TVC is a tale of how a mother uses Tanishq's range of wedding jewellery to make her daughter see herself as stunning as a bride. This consequently makes her open up to the idea of an arranged marriage. The TVC tries to solve the modern day dilemma of parents who desire to have their daughters marry and daughters who are in no real rush for marriage.

According to me this TVC perfectly aims at the emotions attached with the subject of marriage. Though it may appear exaggeration that, ‘how can a woman takes a major decision like marriage on the basis of jewellery?’, but according to me it carries the emotional message to women in the TG.

Unlike the TVC, which deals with emotional space of wedding, the print campaign showcases the width and range of the specific wedding jewellery for different occasions across ethnic groups. From 16 page ads to cover ads, Tanishq has done it all in seven magazines, including Cosmopolitan, Femina and Grihashobha. Good use of print media which provides the comfort to go into details of the product and also they have chosen right place to communicate.

Tanishq has also launched a BTL campaign, 'Tanishq dulhan' in Tier II and III cities, where the winning brides are given gifts and are styled by the brand on their wedding day. There is also a programme for older couples, who have completed 25 years of marriage. I couldn’t get the specifications of the BTL campaign.

The brand will also launch a big-budget campaign in the digital space.

According to me this is the optimum use of each & every media to communicate with your TG. They have created brand awareness through TVC and further they have used print media to communicate product features in detail with their TG in the regional languages. Also to engage the TG they have BTL part of campaign.

Good going Tanishq!

Launch of Volkswagen Polo

Volkswagen Polo

Category- Premium Hatchback
Company- Volkswagen Das Auto

Campaign- "Launch of Polo in India"

After Beetle I was eagerly waiting for VW Polo & recently saw TVCs of the same. With Polo, VW is entering into very crowded Indian small car market & that too in premium hatchback segment which is dominated by players like Maruti Suzuki & Hyundai. In this segment Ritz & Swift represents Maruti Suzuki & i20 represents Hyundai. Also Ford has entered in this segment with Figo & Honda has entered with Jazz though it is in little higher category when we consider prices.

VW Polo is positioned as German car exclusively made for India. This is very apt positioning when you are entering into the Indian car market at this moment. Because nowadays most of the carmakers make some changes before launching their products in Indian Market, most of the times by just changing the left hand driving to right hand driving but they fail to completely match with the Indian conditions. And here is VW which fills that gap by introducing Polo, which is manufactured at Chakan near Pune, considering Indian conditions. This positioning also appeals to the emotional mind of an Indian.

Now let’s analyse the execution part of the marketing brief given by the German carmaker. The TVC part of campaign is released in four forms. All the TVCs target the sceptical nature of car buyer and try to solve their doubts in a very funny way.

The first commercial shows a sceptical car buyer testing the car's ground clearance, by placing an ostrich's egg under the car and driving over without touching it. He is soon shown being chased by the visibly angry ostrich.

The second commercial has a sceptical car buyer driving through cattle, as he tries to put the car's road handling to test. The ad again ends with the herd chasing the driver.

In the third commercial, the driver tests Polo's claim of running for 27 kilometres on one litre of diesel, as he fills the car with the exact amount of fuel. He soon runs into trouble the car stalls in a forest area, after having run for the claimed distance, as tribal people drag him away.

The fourth TVC has a sceptical car buyer testing the safety and toughness of the car, as he challenges a rhinoceros to 'bring it on'. He soon realises what a bad idea that was, and how tough the car is, as the rhino rams right into the Polo.

Each film ends with a voiceover, which says that the car has already been tested by engineers and one need not put it to any further tests.

According to me, all the four versions fulfil the expectations by focusing on product features as well as appealing the emotional quotient by showing scepticism. Further, the product features such as ground clearance, safety, road handling & mileage are really the requirements for being a successful car in the Indian conditions. But the second part i.e. emotional appeal could have been better than the current one. I feel the commercial seems rude by saying, ‘Our engineers have tested it you need not to’. We Indians don’t like rudeness, we believe in values & cultures. When you get the marketing brief saying, ‘You need to show the efficacy of German technology on Indian roads by showing the Indianness of the car’, then I think you have lots of options to choose from. I have seen one commercial for VW Polo for its launch in one of the Western Countries wherein they have demonstrated car features by fulfilling the needs of family members of different age group. And I think in India what would have been better than showing a car which fulfils the needs of the whole family by giving emotional touch to it.

Other than TVC, I have seen the promotion done by one of the dealers of VW by displaying car at various places, like I have seen it at HDFC bank during lunch hours, where some employees were briefed by the salesman about the features of the car. This is very good strategy to go to your target group to demonstrate the features of your product.

The 360-degree campaign comprises of four TV commercials in addition to innovations in print, outdoor and digital.

Del Monte's Taste Like Never Before

Del Monte Sauce

Category- Ketchups & Sauce
Company- FieldFresh Foods

Campaign- "Taste like never before"

The campaign, breaking the tradition of caring mothers, hungry children and funny characters in the TVC’s of ketchup and sauces’ category, is here by Del Monte. Ketchup and sauces category hasn’t seen much activity in recent years & at the same time consumers are very eager to try out new things in every category including foods and beverages. This acted as a trigger for Del Monte to come up with two new flavours of sauces, Zingo and Twango. Twango is a fruit based sauce and Zingo is the traditional eastern style sauce with garlic, ginger etc. Let’s see how these sauces would tempt the taste buds of consumers.

Del Monte was brought to India in 2007 by a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Del Monte Pacific Ltd. The JV is called FieldFresh Foods Pvt Ltd. The Del Monte product range is very exciting; it has foods that are different from the routine and tastes that are different from the usual. This formed the base of positioning & communication strategy for Del Monte sauces. The sauces are positioned on the unique taste with the tagline, “Taste, like never before”. Till now this category has targeted women & children but Del Monte is focussing on youth & women as their target. According to me this is good thinking because when you are inviting consumers to try out new thing then, who would be better than youth as a target group that too in the category of ketchups & sauces. And it’s mother who buys the ketchups and sauces.

Now the challenge lies in communicating this unique taste to the target group who is also very choosy and dynamic in picking up the ideas expressed in the communication. But fortunately the idea came at the product test stage itself as whoever tasted the sauce wanted to know “What is this sauce?”

TVC which is the part of communication opens with a shot a woman sitting in a passenger train, about to bite into a piece of samosa. Her co-passenger who is about to get off the train, offers some sauce to spice up her samosa. The woman tries the samosa with the sauce and finds it so delicious, that she is hell-bent on finding out what sauce it is. She jumps off the train, searching for that passenger - who, by then has already left the railway station - and overcomes an obstacle course of sorts to eventually find him again. She asks him which sauce was it. That's when the voiceover introduces the brand and its variants.

According to me the TVC is very apt in communicating the idea of unique taste and also achieves the objective of appealing the target group. It is based on the basic human insight that whenever we try new and exciting thing we want to know the source of it, and sometimes adapt the things which are out of way to know the source. But if you interchange the characters of women & boy, according to me it would become more relevant & apt. Your primary target group is youth and if you show the temptation of knowing source with that boy then it would be more appealing to that group. And as mothers buys the ketchup and sauce, showing the sauce with that women in the TVC would carry good message. Also Del Monte wanted to give the Indian touch to the communication, which is achieved by showing such a track and suitable background music.

The inaugural television campaign is being supported by print and digital promotions. Since the brand's target audience is primarily the youth, the online space has been used extensively, with launch announcements on portals and activities on social networking sites.

The brand, as part of its BTL activities, has worked on in-store visibility and merchandising in modern retail and general trade stores, and has also carried out sampling exercises among consumers.

Happy journey with VIP Superlite

VIP Superlite

Category- Luggage

Company- VIP Industries

Campaign "Happy Journey (Animated)"

Planning for summer vacation trip, here is VIP wishing you “happy journey” through its new campaign.

Before going to the campaign, just have a look at the trends in the Indian luggage industry.

Classification of luggage category,

Trends in the luggage industry and consumer behaviour-
Over the past few years economy segment of luggage have shown negative growth, mid-segment have shown stagnant growth and premium segment have shown substantial growth. This trend shows that the luggage is no more just the functional product which people buy once in 10-15 years, it has become fashion object which people buy to complement their clothes and type of trip.
Also in case of luggage material, the demand for soft luggage is increasing over hard or moulded luggage. This is the indication of changing people’s objective of buying luggage for just security to comfort & convenience.

The journey of VIP-
VIP had stronghold in mid-segment but the changing consumer preference and emerging competition forced it to think beyond mid-segment. VIP re-positioned it as travel companion rather than just a luggage brand. It wanted to connect itself to the travelling, so will think of VIP.
In its one of the campaign during 2003, VIP tried to emphasise on the most emotional part of travelling i.e. time of departure. A mother bidding goodbye to her children, a child clinging on to her father who is leaving for work, a young mother trying to cajole her daughter who has come to see her off at the airport, by twirling her suitcase around. These are scenes from the `Bye bye' campaign of V.I.P., which was on all TV channels and was supported by a series of outdoor campaigns.
Then VIP tried to connect itself with youth and hence chose Shahid Kapoor as its brand ambassador. It came up with nice communication campaign with Shahid Kapoor focusing on different features of their product like toughness and lightness.
And now to position VIP as youthful and more lively brand it came up with new animation campaign.

Recent campaign-
In the recent campaign VIP has captured the feeling of happiness & friendship through its animated character.
The ad film opens with a man walking down the road with the new VIP Superlite bag. As he walks down the road, he sees a group of children sitting on the park bench, sad because their football is stuck on the top of a lamppost. The man stands on his VIP bag and lifts the children on his shoulders to retrieve the ball, highlighting the strength and durability of the bag.
Moving on, he sees a couple sitting in the park, bored and tired. He opens his VIP bag to release a big heart, which captures the couple, leaving them happy and vibrant – thus showing the bag’s capacity.
The girl sends a gentle flying kiss to the man, which sets him flying into the sky with the VIP bag, where he is flying alongside an airplane, showing how light the VIP bag is. The TVC ends with a pack shot of the new VIP Superlite range and the tagline: ‘Happy Journey’.
Product features such as strength & light weight are brilliantly woven into the communication. What could be better than animations to express the feeling of happiness? Also this character can be extended to further communications of the brand.
Besides television, VIP has carried out extensive in-store merchandising and posters in its exclusive and multi-brand outlets. Branding has also been done at point of travel, on conveyor belts at airports, Jet Airways' baggage tags, IRCTC tickets and in-flight and in-store magazines.

Maruti Suzuki Ritz

Category- Car

Segment- Premium Hatchback
Company- Maruti Suzuki

Campaign- "Why Choose?"

As usual Maruti Suzuki followed its line filling strategy of lengthening the product line by adding one more car within same product range. Line filling strategy is two edged sword, if it’s done nicely, it gives good results in terms of overall profits, but if it’s overdone, it results in self-cannibalisation & customer confusion. By introducing Ritz in premium hatchback segment where Swift is already present, Maruti Suzuki has again taken the same risk. Maruti Suzuki has been successful in converting this risk into opportunity by differentiating products which are in the same product range. And as usual it’s successful in differentiating Swift & Ritz by positioning Swift as an individualistic car & Ritz as a family car as well as by giving Ritz the sophisticated and luxury tinge.

This is all about strategies formulated within four walls but it’s very important to communicate these differential points to the target group to avoid self-cannibalisation & customer confusion. And I think Maruti Suzuki again won the battle of communication through the recent Maruti Suzuki Ritz campaign comprising TVC.
The first half of the TVC tells us about the trade-offs we do before arriving at any decision in the life and finally compromise on something. The film starts with a boy and a girl, both busy painting two walls: one with pink, and the other with blue. The voiceover says: "Pink or blue"? Second situation shows a lobby in a multi-storey, where an elevator is going up, while another is headed down. Voiceover: "Up or down"? The next vignette: A rose petal falls on a clean white bed, and an earthen pot is broken into pieces. Voiceover: "Apologise or argue"? The next shot is inside a car, where a husband is confused whether he should give time to his wife or his mother. "Wife or mother"? The following clip shows a glutton on a treadmill, while someone is relishing an orange. The voiceover: "Sweat or starve"? The last shot shows a man entering through the glass doors of an office, while another man with a smiling face comes out of it with a carton full of his belongings. The voiceover: "Quit or stick"? Second half the film shifts its focus to the Ritz, and says: "Why choose? When one car has it all: Performance and mileage, comfort and excitement, space and style."

According to me the campaign is successful in touching viewer’s emotional quotient as well as in focusing on product features. Most of the brands prefer to demonstrate product features in the first part of the campaign and then go for emotional appeal when the product is well known. In case of cars, display of the car by different angles as well as while performing is common strategy of communication but recently some of the car campaigns have directly gone for the emotional appeal rather going for display of product features, Volkswagen Beetle is one of the good examples in this category. Here Ritz has done both things and that too very effectively in the same campaign.

The only thing bothering me in this campaign is the frequency of TV commercials, it’s very less. As Ritz is in the phase of awareness it should come up with frequent ads on different TV channels. Also the campaign is going to come up with OOH & radio ads, but according to me all the medium should communicate at the same time to get place in the today’s customer’s mind who is suffering from short term memory syndrome due to bombardment of millions of ads.